Before we begin, let’s get caught up on a few Lake County Transportation topics.

Tri-State Rebuild and Widen: Trucking right along, although I can’t resist asking “Are we there yet?” about the completion date. The northbound express lane recently disappeared and there are three all-access northbound lanes now.

Route 53: Aside from the “yes” vote registered on the 2009 referendum, I haven’t heard much else about 53. Note that the referendum’s passage didn’t mean 53 was going to happen any time soon, but Lake County voters have made their opinions known. Let me know when the earth movers show up.

Construction: There’s quite a bit of it. Methinks federal stimulus money is spurring construction jobs and roadwork-induced commuter headaches well into late fall/early winter this year. Hopefully a bit of short-term motorist pain will give way to long-term motorist relief, at least until the housing market picks up and population increases. Lake County Passage’s text-only Mobile web page provides a quick glance of what’s underway. Commuters are especially delayed by the various projects around Rt. 22, which coupled with limited escape routing through woodsy burbs makes this road a much-groaned-about topic.

Lake County is kicking 48 roadwork projects into gear. Funding will come from the quarter-cent transportation tax approved during the mass transit “doomsday” crisis of Winter ’08. Included are several key projects County residents have been eagerly anticipating. A few thoughts on those with which I am familiar:

1) Widening of Route 21 from 137 to Route 120 in Libertyville and Gurnee

This is a major southbound bottleneck during the morning commute. Glad to see it’s on the list.

2) Widening of Routes 60, 60/83 and 45 in the Mundelein and Vernon Hills area

The Delaney morning delay is awful, and the left-turn signal onto U.S. Route 41 never seems to last long enough. Widening is great, but can something be done about this intersection?

5) Widening of Washington Street from Hunt Club Road to Cemetery Road in Gurnee

Also much needed. Washington needs all the capacity it can get.

I haven’t experienced rush hour at the “Millburn Strangler” on Route 45, but having driven in the area I can understand how cars could stack up there.

6) Widening of Washington Street from Lake Street to Hainesville Road in Grayslake

Currently, traffic narrows from two lanes to one west of Lake Street, right before reaching the Metra tracks and Washington Street Metra station. It’s an evening commute bottleneck.

Projects about which I’m not so sure:

Intersection expansion and improvement at Wadsworth Road and Route 41 in Wadsworth. This one can be congested westbound during the morning rush if a train interferes, but there are much more congested intersections than this one; how’d it make the list?

Not sure if an underpass at Fairfield, Route 134 and the Metra tracks in Round Lake is as traffic-essential as the other projects.

The News Swami has a witty take on the whole mess of affairs, along with suggestions as to what projects should be added to the list. I heard a rumor that the repaving of the dark side of the moon – I mean, Grand Avenue near Gurnee Mills – has been given a “go”, but haven’t a link to share to prove it.

Sometimes it can feel as if all of Lake County is one gridlocked, bottlenecked, backed-up road, but everything is relative. There are backups, and there are eye-rolling, engine-temperature-rising, steering-wheel-slapping brake sessions to set watches by. Year-round jam spots, not caused by temporary road construction, frequent enough to include in navigation directions: “Make a right on 83 to avoid the Route 60 traffic jam”.

The Chicago announcement reminds me of a recent article that addressed congestion pricing and similar options in the suburbs (I was unable to find the link, but I will update this post with the link should I find it).

Congestion pricing is increasingly being studied as a way to reduce the number of vehicles in busy areas and encourage alternate modes of transportation. It’s an attempt at letting the market decide the value of driving in premium areas at peak times.